Snow day

The call came in at 6:00 a.m. or so: two-hour school delay. Oh, well, at least the Bigs could go to extended day and my oldest would be able to have his band concert. My youngest's preschool hardly ever closes, maybe only one day during last year's ice storm. They'd have to be quiet during my first two calls, but I felt optimistic. The calls were at 9 and 10, and then the kids would be due at school at 11:10.

My oldest was disappointed that it was only a delay. I suggested we watch the news, so we could get a bigger picture. "How come they don't have to go to school!" he demanded as he watched the notifications scroll by at the bottom of the TV screen. (morning kindergartners or kids in adjacent towns).

"I don't know, honey, it's up to each district. And kindergartners only go to school for three hours or so anyway, so I guess if 2/3 of their day is delayed, what's the point?" (I wondered when and if they'd make up the time?) I do have kindergarten on my mind as I just registered my youngest.

And then I got the second call, with an "updated message" informing us there was no school at all. Well, okay, there was a ton of snow out there and it sure looked pretty, but what about my two midday meetings and the two other appointments on my calendar? I cancelled both appointments, the first of which was a visit to the chiropractor. I couldn't imagine bringing my three boys to that, though I did tell them they might have to come with me in case I couldn't cancel without penalty (I wasn't sure about the doctor's policy as I am new at this). The second was my weekly walk with two friends from church. My kids wouldn't have wanted to be dragged along on that either. And yes, I do have to schedule personal time in my calendar. I used to put in "WLB" for work-life balance. Today I think that acronym means "Work-life blending" but that is a story for another day (which I've actually started and includes amusing things I do during conference calls that you couldn't do if you were in an office).

I made it to 1:30 and all my calls were done, and all it was doing was raining. That's pretty much all it had been doing since I got the second call, and all it did all day. The kids were being relatively good but I knew the downstairs looked like a war zone (well, actually, it has looked like that for almost a week since the day we had the playdate with the Nerf gun wars -- I have not cleaned up any of the bullets. So in addition to the socks next to the bed that have not been picked up, neither have any of these bullets). I had gone down a few times to make sure everyone was settled prior to each call. I had cooked and served food. I had even taken a shower and got dressed.

I congratulated myself. Until I realized that someone had sent me an invite for a 2:00 call, and it was 2:01. I had deliberately chosen to ignore my email today because juggling kids and meetings was enough, I couldn't add multitasking with email. I took the extra call but the kids were at the end of their ability to be quiet. "I'm bored" had turned into roughhousing, shrieking, crashing, whining, and ultimately dashing up to my office. (Glad about the mute button.)

I worked for the rest of the afternoon. And then the payback part of the snow day for me was that there was nothing we had to do that night. The band concert was cancelled, and the fact that we were double booked with Destination Imagination no longer mattered because that was cancelled, too.

Update: after two reminders, the socks and a even stray pair of underwear, were put in the hamper today!